NORMAN FOSTER

As an architect, you
design for the present,
with an awareness of the
past, for a future which is
essentially unknown.
Sir Norman Foster is a
prominent and prolific British
architect known for his
innovative, stylish structural
designs.

NAME :Norman Foster

OCCUPATION: Architect

BIRTH DATE : June 1, 1935 (age 84)

EDUCATION : University of
Manchester, Yale University

PLACE OF BIRTH : Manchester,

England, United Kingdom
•Norman Foster was born on June 1, 1935 in Manchester, England.

•He grew up in a working-class neighborhood and left school at the age of 16

to work as a town hall clerk.

• Later going on to work in engineering as part of the Royal Air Force for two
years.

•He went on to study architecture at the University of Manchester and won

accolades for his drawing work, developing a lifelong passion for sketching.

• He later earned a scholarship to Yale University’s School of Architecture,

earning his master’s in 1962.

Early Life and Education

•Foster + Partners is an international entity that has
more than 1,000 employees and continues to handle
projects in a wide range of nations.

•Foster was knighted in 1990 and received a life

peerage nine years later. He has received an array of
additional honors that include the 1983 Royal Gold
Medal for Architecture and the 1999 Pritzker Prize.

WORK EXPERIENCE
•Sir Norman Foster's work is often sleek,
modern and high tech; creating cinematic
backdrops to everyday life.
•His firm, Foster + Partners, has projects all
over the world and they continue to create
progressive works of High-Tech
architecture incorporating Sustainable
Design.

Architectural style: High-tech

architecture
•Foster's design philosophy involves
1. integration,
2. regeneration,
3. adaptability,
4. flexibility,
5. technology, and
6. ecology.

FOSTERS PHILOSOPHY
His architecture is a combination of these principles.

Social Responsiveness

Adaptive Reuse

Advanced Technology
Social Responsiveness
'' The London City Hall, for
''Architecture is example, shows how
about the social Foster responds to societal
agenda,'' Foster values, like democracy.
says. For him, how Foster designed the hall as
we build reflects a transparent, open, and
accessible space. He used
how we live, and glass to express the
architecture is ''the uncensored dialogue of
embodiment of our democracy.
civic values.
 Public spaces play a fundamental
role in Foster's socially-
responsive architecture. He says,
''Public spaces are more important
than buildings. They make a city
alive.

The Willis Faber and Dumas Building, for

example, integrates such social
dimension. Here, Foster created an office
building where, at lunch time, employees
could sunbathe or swim in the swimming
pool. On weekends, the building served as
a social facility and public space for the
town. This was a revolutionary social
design in the 1970s.
 Adaptive Reuse
•Foster has redesigned several
buildings with historical
background. For him,
''Architecture is a connection
with the past.''' Foster takes
this connection as the
revitalization and repurposing
of historic buildings for new
generations, which is
called adaptive reuse.
• He says, ''As an architect, you
design for the present, with an
awareness of the past, for a
future which is essentially
unknown.''
The Reichstag Building
in Berlin, for example, is
a full reconstruction
through a deep respect
of history. The new
building is characterized
with a glass dome
addition, which
symbolizes rebirth and
political transparency.
Advanced Technology
For Foster, ''The history
He explores the science
of architecture is the
of materials and the
history of technology…
aesthetic relationship
And you can't separate
between science,
technology from the
industry, and art. Yet,
humanistic and spiritual
Foster takes technology
content of a building.''
as a means, not an end.
Foster adopts the
For him, ''The ends are
most cutting-edge
social and always have
technology available to
been.''
architecture

The HSBC Bank, Hong Kong

 ICONIC BUILDINGS
1971-1975 Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, United Kingdom

1992-1998 Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong, China

2000-2006 Hearst Tower, New York City, USA

2006-2014 Spaceport America, New Mexico, USA

2012 Lunar Habitation, The Moon

2014 SkyCycle, London, United Kingdom

2016-2020 Rwandan Droneport

1.Willis Faber and Dumas •Foster’s first green The building is a
Headquarters building mere three-stories
that fulfills its spatial
•It is the headquaters requirements with a
blot-like shape that
for insurance company,
adheres to the
requiring the scale of a surrounding street
small office tower. plan .

•The buliding responds

to scale of surrounding
buildings.

•While façade curves to

irregular medival
street pattern “flowing
to the edges of the
site, like a pancake in a
pan”.
 • Solar tinted glazing •The center of the building
panels , each 2 m sq ,are is constructed from a grid
developed by corner of concrete pillars.
patch fittings , then
silicon joined. • Each of 14m apart ,
supporting the cantilever
• The exterior of the concrete slab
building is made of 890
dark smoked glass curtain
No right angle
wall
corners
 The highly-efficient, coated glass
remains nearly black during the day
and is translucent at night.

Rich in amenities
including a pool
(now closed), roof
cafeteria, and roof
lawn, Foster was
eager to create a
sense of
community in the
office
Plan of Willis Faber and Site plan of Willis Faber and
Dumas Headquarters Dumas Headquarters
Section of Willis Faber and
Dumas Headquarters
 Metric View

Awarded Grade I
listed status in 1991
for its ingenuity, it
was the newest
building ever to be
given this honor,
and has since been
immune to future
changes.
 2.Chek Lap Kok Airport
•The island on which HKG was
•Chek Lap Kok Airport built was previously home to
is the major new airport mountainous terrain with a
in hong kong . 100-meter peak, which has
•Highly regarded for its now been leveled to 7 meters
clear layout and natural above sea level, and the
lightning. island’s footprint has been
expanded to four times its
original size.
•  Chek Lap Kok Airport is an
important regional trans-
shipment centre, passenger
hub and gateway for
destinations in China (with 45
destinations) and the rest of
Asia.
The Old Hong Kong International Airport
•The old airport was located in a densely populated area. Construction of new airport
•Hong Kong opened its new
• Landing on that airport required considerable expertise, and International Airport 16 miles
was a serious risk for large aircraft. out at sea.
• The airport increased the
• Hence, it was closed down in 1998, after the completion of land area of Hong Kong by 1%.
the new Airport.
 A new transportation stretches 34km from Hong Kong Island to the airport.

High-speed rail system Bridges - zhuhai-macau Six-lane expressway World’s longest double-
bridge – world’s largest sea decker suspension bridge.
bridge.

For the rapid movement of passengers, the airport has 288 check-in counters, 200
immigration desks and 80 customs positions. The new airport also boasts 2.5km of
moving walkways and around 120 shops.
SECTIONS
Hearst Tower
LOCATION: South of Columbus
circle

BY: William Randolph –an US

editor and publisher
•Nonetheless, the elaborate
PURPOSE: Media empire
cast-stone facade, complete
with allegorical figures of
HISTORY:A six-story building
industries, and ornamental
was designed by Joseph
fluted-columns topped by
Urban and completed in 1928.
funerary urns.
• But the Great Depression nixed
•Podium became an exterior
plans for a skyscraper that would
landmark, with Hearst
have risen above the podium.
seeking to advance plans for
a tower above the base,
•Foster’s tower, a diagrid of
profiled stainless steel and e-
clear glass, emerges from the
original base, and although there
is a complete contrast of
materials.
•The two structures share an Art
Deco angularity that creates a
harmony between old and new.
FLOOR PLANS OF
HEARST OWER
SECTIONS OF
HEARST TOWER
ELEVATION OF HEARST TOWER
4.Spaceport America AIRPORT : Private
commercial spaceport
OPERATOR: New Mexico
spaceport authority
LOCATION : Sierra
county ,New Mexico

•It is the world’s first

•There is an array of non-aerospace events private spaceport.
and commercial activities like •Encompassing some
1. a hanger complete with support facilities 110,000 ft², with three
2. a training area floors
3. astronaut lounge •The spaceport America is
4. mission control home to a multitude of
5. spacesuit dressing rooms and programmatic elements
6. a recovery lounge. 
 The building uses local The site is built to
materials and accommodate both
construction techniques vertical and horizontal
that have aided in its launch aerospace vehicles.
achieving of a LEED It depends on thermal
 platinum rating. energy cycles to moderate
it’s temperature and its
low-profile.

With westward facing
windows, is a boon to
ventilation and
protection from the
harsh New Mexico sun.
Unlike a conventional
airport, which is usually
located in highly-
developed areas and
requires great ingenuity
for spatial efficiency, the
spaceport is a spectacle
unto itself, because its
remoteness requires no
design restraint.
 9 1.Natural daylight can enter
1 through skylight on roof
2. Thin shell roof concrete for
7 thermal mass
3. Chilled beams in soffit above
pvolic area
2 4. Natural ventilation
6 5.Underfloor radiant cooling and
heating
8
6.Area rejected through
geothermal loop occurred in
3 ground
7. Warm air cooled in rock
cubsrasnth buried in earth derm
8. Displacement ventilation at
low level to all areas
5
4 9. Photovoltaic and solar panels
PLAN OF SPACEPORT AMERICA
SECTIONS
OF
SPACEPORT
AMERICA
 Foster + Partners has taken
5.Lunar Habitation on the 
practical possibilities of off-ea
rth building
, by postulating 
3D-printed architecture on
•the moon.
The
Remnant lunar surface habit
at was developed to further
human exploration into deep
space by supporting eight
astronauts on missions
lasting up to 12 months.

•This expandable lunar

habitat could provide a base
for research in space.
•A base designed for four inhabitants would begin as a
tubular structure, brought from earth, from which an
inflatable dome would emerge as a membranous
mound, around which regolith would be laid by a 3D-
printing robot. Mixed with a printing agent, the lunar
soil would be laid in a hollow cellular-like pattern,
created by the firm and a consortium of partners, to
mimic biological systems.

•The materials to build the
Moon habitat should be
lightweight.
•The habitat will have to be
sent to the Moon in pieces
and assembled by the
explorers once they arrive.
•As with any Moon habitat, it
must have an airlock.
The airlock is a small
room between the door
to the outside and the
door to the inside.
Entering the habitat
•Before the astronaut opens the outside door,
the inside door must be closed.
• The astronaut enters the airlock and closes
the outside door.
•Then the airlock is pumped full of air.
• Only then can the astronaut open the inside
door to enter the habitat.
Leaving the habitat
• The astronaut steps into the airlock with the
outside door closed.
•The inside door is then closed and all the air
pumped out of the airlock, making it a vacuum,
just like the outside
• The astronaut opens the outside door and
steps outside.
 Inside door

Outside door
6.Skycycle , London , United Kingdom

SkyCycle  was a
proposed 
transport infrastru
cture
project for 
London of a
219-kilometre
(136 mi) network
of elevated 
cycle paths above 
train tracks
 •Communication with the
Mayor of London. Clark and
•The idea for the Martin had a meeting
project originated with with Isabel Dedring, the
Sam Martin, the Deputy Mayor for Transport,
director of Exterior Johnson himself on their way
Architecture, and his to it, who was enthusiastic
employee Oli Clark.  about the project.
•Martin later approached
Foster and Partners for
planning assistance. The
group estimated the cost
of the first phase as £220
million, and the cost of the
entire project between £7
and 8 billion. 

History
•In 2014 the
developers were said
to be seeking funds for
a feasibility study
•In October 2012, the proposal was
rejected by Johnson, who had
expressed concerns that estimated
costs for the project had not been
fully worked out and that London did
not have sufficient railway capacity to
build on.
 •Rwanda is the world's first
7.Rwandan Droneport 'drone-port' to deliver
medical supplies.

•Drones carry emergency

medicine zooming above the
rolling hills of Rwanda.

The Droneport project is

about doing more with less,
capitalising on the recent
advancements in drone
technology – something
that is usually associated
with war and hostilities – to
make an immediate life-
saving impact in Africa."
 Why a droneport?
•For “land of a thousand hills” , specialist drones
can carry blood and life-saving supplies over
100km at minimal cost.
• Providing an affordable alternative that can
complement road-based deliveries,”

• Norman Foster – set up a “cargo drone routes

capable of delivering urgent and precious
supplies to remote areas on a massive scale”

•And the East African nation of Rwanda has

been chosen as a test case.
Construction :
•Droneport project explores the potential
of an “ infrastructure leap” by using
cutting edge technology.

•The vaulted form is made up from two

layers of a new type of compressed earth
blocks called Durabric developed for
sustainable construction.

•The Norman Foster Foundation is also

exploring how a solar-powered building
material called Solar Brick, could be 3D
printed in future drone ports.
Thank you